Things your parents did that you wouldnt dream of?

[Frasersmum123]

Is there anything that your parents did when you were younger that you wouldnt do?

Our used to leave us in the car while they went shopping, for what seemed like hours, but in reality was probably about half an hour.

There was 4 of us and we all used to squeeze into the back of my dads car, which had three seats.

At age 3 I was left in the car with my 2 DBs at a huge services in Spain on our way home from holiday. The temptation to visit the arcades was too great for DBs so they left me asleep in the car with windows open and doors unlocked. The car was broken in to and all our stuff taken (money, passports, ferry tickets the lot) Luckily I didn't wake up!

The worst bit was as the Spanish police were no help my Dad made us leave the car in same place the next day whilst he kept watch so he could catch them himself. My DB swears dad promised to show him an arm he would chop off the people he caught!

Christ, where to start. I think the biggest difference is that my parents treated their kids as property while I hope I manage to treat mine like people, or at least to pretend to .

Here's two:

Once when locked out of a 5th story flat in council block, passing kids from neighbours balcony - over the gap - to the ours, to gain entrance through the unlocked balcony door.

Setting fire to the Christmas tree whilst drunk.

crikey. So much of this is familiar - especially the rolling around in cars on blankets and sleeping bags tales.

Here are some of mine ..

Allowing my grandmother to give me a large tumbler of sherry on Christmas Day to make me sleep.

Hiding over the limit duty free in my Spanish donkey and then smacking me on the legs to make me cry to ensure a swift passage through customs.

Getting wasted on Christmas morning and dropping all the dinner plates so there was nothing to eat off.

Giving me a key round my neck from the age of 6 so that i could let myself in after school, and no one coming home until 5.30.

leaving a pan of boiling oil (from cooking the dogs dinner?!) on the tray at the bottom of my highchair to cool and being surprised when I pulled it all over my legs trying to climb in the chair (still have the scars)

We have several charming family photos with evidence of stuff I would never do. A couple such examples include a heartwarming photo of 2 year old Wigglesworth with her Mum at Butlins holiday campsite club, Mum had a John Player superking in one hand and me on her knee. Another lovely picture included myself (I was probably about 2 1/2 YO), my DB and my 3 cousins sat outside my Wendy house. I wasn't wearing any drawers with my legs open, tuppence on full display and my youngest cousin (must have been about 18 months old at most) brandishing a packet of embassy NO1 and using them as a rattle.
Needless to say they never made it into the Wigglesworth Family album.

I remember being about 8 or 9 and playing on the cliffs that looked over Hastings Sea front - being left to play all day whilst she was at work.

Always left home alone while she went to work - if i went to work with her (she was a Dr's receptionist - any contagious children came into the waiting room - she would say you cant sit in the main waiting room go and play with my daughter downstairs

Went to visit friend in Hastings when i was 14/15 and mum wouldnt come and collect me - i had to get train from Hastings - across London on the tube and back to the Midlands on my own - i didnt have a clue and some kindly man escorted me all the way across London, gave me cigarettes and carried my case! I dread to think what could have happened

Oh i also remember going to a friends house to stay the night - i was about 11 - her parents went out for the night to get pissed and we raided there beer and fag stash - we were so drunk i spent the whole night and the next day being sick - they told my mum i must have had bad prawns! They must have known the truth because we drank all of the beer and the empties were everywhere

Absolutely nothing!

As a small child of the "70s, I remember walking the dog (very friendly retriever) round Roundhay Park in Leeds for at least an hour sometimes longer - everyday during the holidays. Me aged about 6/7 and DB was 2 years younger. This was the era of the Yorkshire Ripper (one of his victims was found in the Roundhay Park public WCs).

That I didn't mind and I never worried - but now, if you sent your kids out like that, SS / Police would be knocking on the door.

However, I still hate smoking with a passion.

Left at home all day when they went to work during the summer holidays (primary school age). Just popped home to give us lunch.

My father did handbrake turns in the car when we were not strapped in.

If we went away, they wouldn't book for us children so we had to sleep on the floor with no bedding.

Loads more.

Step dad smoked constantly.

My mum let me go pretty much anywhere from the age of about 9.

My mum trusted me too much and seemed to have forgotten that the quiet ones are usually the worst.

Didn't punish me when I got totally rat-arsed at the age of 15. I was crying out for boundaries.

Let me go out with local "psycho".

She did have my best interests at heart and was trying not to be like her own father who had a very authoritarian approach to parenting almost bordering on abusive.

My mum dressed my sister and me in matching outfits, even though there is 5 years difference between us.

We also had hand-knitted jumpers with our names on the front a godsend for anyone who wanted to snatch us!

I had a real temper, and if I was in full spate she would throw cold water over me (I was older by this stage though - early teens)

When I was little - maybe about 3 - I used to 'help' my dad do DIY in the garage. I had a small (proper) hacksaw and I would spend merry hours sawing wood with it. Happy days...

Putting us in the trailer to drive to the local dump - we loved it as long as he didn't go to fast.

If we were on a long car journey, and my sister wanted to go to sleep, she got to stretch out on the back seat, and I had to perch on the edge to stop her falling off.

They used to smoke in the car too, which always made me carsick (something my mum vehemently denies to this day - not the actual smoking, but the effect I said it had on me).

Saltire my mum did the same thing. Quite a big town, left me in boots aged a few weeks and got the bus home!

Never used suncream on us. I remember sitting with some friends and having a competition to see who could peel the biggest bit of skin off someone's back!

My mum used to get me to light her cigarette when she was driving.

I often sat on their knee and steered the car while they worked the pedals. Or I used to like changing gear.

Being left in a hotel room with my brother and sister at about 7 yrs old while they went out for dinner.

Being left with a red hand mark on the back of my leg after a smack. Hit on the head with the hair brush if I didn't keep still.

alicecrail at least it was you and not me or she wouldnt of come back with the sort of noise i made xx

Poking dead dogs in the river...walking to and from school unaccompanied from 5....Rosehip Syrup (remember that??)..crap food - all the time - constant smoking....those were the days!!

Gave me whisky to make me vomit when I was ill

Successful deterrent though - can't abide the stuff now.

Hehe mumrugrat I think i slept the whole time!!!

i wasnt a good sleeper really but still aint now but thats cos my kids

I don't think we could put anything else on here what our mother did, no-one would believe us!!

It wasn't parents per se, though they were in loco parentis, but when dh was at boarding school, aged 10, all the boarders used to be sent out for a two-hour walk after sunday lunch. They could go wherever they wanted (the school was in the New Forest) and no-one supervised them. Dh now assumes that all the staff were back at the school frantically having 2 hours of nookie before the children got back!

Occasionally a child would fail to return at the right time, but dh assures me that the school always had the right number of children by the end of term.

Even better, as a special 'character-building' treat, they'd occasionally be loaded into the minibus and dropped off somewhere out of the way and unknown to them, to find their way home!

My dad wouldn't stop once we were on a journey (e.g. Cheshire to Cornwall). I can remember weeing in the potty on the floor of the car with my brother and sister groaning at the smell.

I was probably 3 or 4.

My Mum saying "we should have stuck with dogs - why did we ever have kids"

In therapy atm. fucking bitch.

Also:
No milk in the night after we were 6 weeks old (being left to cry teaches babies a lesson).

No wonder i'm such an insecure mess.